Daniel Schwarz, Jaylin Schwarz and Ashley Schwarz (CBS Texas/YouTube).
A father in Texas has admitted to killing his 8-year-old daughter with his wife by forcing the youngster to jump repeatedly on a scorching hot trampoline, which apparently had a surface temperature of approximately 110 degrees at the time.
Daniel Schwarz, 48, didn’t care about the blistering August heat when he forced his child, Jaylin Schwarz, to keep jumping on the trampoline that day in 2020 at their home in Odessa, according to prosecutors. Schwarz pleaded guilty Friday to manslaughter and was sentenced to serve 18 years in prison after accepting a plea agreement. The Ector County District Attorney’s Office announced the deal in a Facebook post, saying it came after Schwarz’s wife, Ashley Schwarz, was previously convicted of capital murder in May 2023.
“(Schwarz) has pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the tragic death of his adopted daughter,” the DA’s office said. “The case dates back to August 29, 2020, when law enforcement responded to a medical emergency involving an 8-year-old girl. Investigators later discovered that Daniel and his wife, Ashley, had forced their daughter to jump on a trampoline for an extended period without food or water as a form of punishment. The trampoline’s surface temperature was approximately 110 degrees at the time.”
According to police, Jaylin was told by her parents that she couldn’t have breakfast that day — or any food at all — until she was done jumping on the trampoline. “Further investigation revealed that the 8-year-old child was not allowed to drink any water because she was not jumping,” authorities said.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, police were called to the 4300 block of Locust Avenue for a medical call when they found out what happened to Jaylin that day. They obtained a search warrant and checked the local temperatures, with the trampoline registering at approximately 110 degrees and the ground being approximately 150 degrees. Jaylin’s autopsy results showed that she died of dehydration and her death was ruled a homicide.
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Relatives told local CBS affiliate KMGH in 2020 that Daniel and Ashley Schwarz were not her biological parents, but her “guardians.” The couple also had custody of Jaylin’s sister at the time of her death and were in the middle of a custody fight with Jaylin’s biological mother, according to court records obtained by The Dallas Morning News. The woman, Alysha Anderton, wrote on Facebook after Jaylin’s murder that her funeral was the first time she had seen her daughter in more than three years.
“I never got the chance to tell her how HARD I was trying to be in her life and I was SO SO close,” Anderton said. “But I was too late. And all I can think about is her leaving this world not knowing how much I love her and how much I wanted her. It’s not fair that they got so many memories with her and all I’m left with is a hole in my heart that’s so big that I’m completely numb and empty. A part of my soul has died and I will never be the same ever again.”
Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
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